So what do you do when, say, you'd just bought a six-pack of red bell peppers from Costco, and your CSA, in its infinite wisdom, decides to bestow upon you a bounty of... red bell peppers? So that you have so many goddamned red bell peppers that even you, lover of red bell peppers that you are, could not possibly eat them all before they went bad?

Try roasting them.

I've roasted bell peppers and chili peppers before, to mixed success, but I'm getting the hang of it. I use the standard stovetop method, which is to blacken the peppers on the open flame of a gas stove, then put them in a covered bowl to steam. When the peppers have cooled, you rsine off most of the skin under cold running water, then remove the seeds and stem and use as you see fit. It's not a particularly difficult method, but experience has taught me some things I wish I'd known when I started, that I'll pass on to you.

First, use tongs. I don't care what you see on the teevee, with asbestos-handed chefs turning peppers on an open burner. Use tongs. Actually, this is something I knew right away, but it's still good advice.

Second, peppers are weirdly shaped. You want a good 70-80% of the pepper surface charred, and you will not accomplish this just by plopping a pepper on the burner and waiting. Not only are peppers weirdly shaped, but gas stove flames are ring-shaped. So after a minute or so, check the side you've been roasting, and then reposition it so that the bits that aren't charred yet are sitting directly on flame.

Third, the first side will always take the longest, especially if the peppers are a bit wet. Be patient with the first side. Learn to watch and listen for the way the pepper pops, and the flame hisses and turns yellow. These are all signs that it's coming along nicely. Expect a good 1-2 minutes for the first side, but only about a minute for the rest.

Fourth, if you're covering the bowl with plastic wrap, don't use the tongs to move the plastic wrap, because the tongs will be hot and the plastic wrap will melt. From one who knows.

And finally, try not to set the stems on fire.

Once the peppers are done, I like to chop them into thick strips, put them in a jar or bottle, pour olive oil over them, and move them to the fridge for long-term storage. Or, at least, I'm pretty sure that's what I think I'll like to do. This is the first time I've done this on this scale. But all my other experience, plus logic, tells me this should work just fine. We'll find out in a couple of days when I pull some out of the fridge.